Student Advisory Board

IFIS has launched our first ever Student Advisory Group. 

As such, we are looking for promising students in the sciences of food and health to apply or be nominated to join the board.

The following information gives context on the background, what we are looking for, and what would be involved for the successful students. If you have any questions which are not covered here, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Background


IFIS is a not-for-profit publisher and educational charity which was founded by 4 trade bodies, including IFT (the Institute of Food Technologists). We publish FSTA – Food Science and Technology Abstracts, which is used by 8 of the top 10 universities for food science

Over the last few years, there have been many changes in the ways academics and students locate information (e.g. the increasing use of Google Scholar) and the challenges in navigating the quantity and varying quality of information available (e.g. information overload and predatory journals).

As an educational not-for-profit organisation, our mission is to fundamentally understand and best serve the information needs of the food community. We are in the ideal position to help solve these kinds of issues and questions for everyone working with food information. We want to help make sure that students are properly equipped with the tools they need to locate high quality, relevant research they need for their studies.

We recently established a new FSTA Advisory Board, and now feel it is important to establish a board of student representatives to help us shape our offering, to make it as useful as possible for our end users.

Therefore, we would be delighted to hear from you if you are, or would like to recommend, a student who would be a good fit for potential inclusion in our new Student Advisory Group.

We are looking for students who show a particular enthusiasm for their current studies and future careers in the food community. We're interested in university students at any stage of their studies, and they should embody qualities such as:

  • Ability to think both strategically and outside of the box
  • Being organised and engaged
  • Having drive to succeed
  • Having a good understanding of the subject they are studying
  • Demonstrable  achievement in their studies (e.g. past grades, certificates, extra curricular activities or projects)
  • Strong communication skills

 

What will be involved?


Members will be contacted for opinions or advice on how to best support them and their fellow students. We don’t expect the time commitment to be more than 5 hours per year (unless board members wish to be more involved than this).

Other optional opportunities may include being given free training in how to effectively use FSTA, acting as or helping to recruit incentivised FSTA student ambassadors to help on campus, and submitting original articles for the chance to be featured in IFIS’ ‘Thought for Food or Research Skills blogs.

 

BENEFITS


We want to make sure that being involved in our student advisory board provides value for the members. As such, potential benefits will be discussed with the newly formed board before being finalised.

Alongside the opportunities outlined in the previous section, benefits may include the following:

  • Annual membership to IFT (Institute of Food Technologists)
  • Individualised mentorship from the IFIS team
  • Review of CV and/or cover letter
  • Formal role, which can be used on CVs, LinkedIn, etc.
  • Potential of LinkedIn recommendation (where appropriate)
  • Incentivised projects on an ad hoc basis

Other benefits include the opportunity to network with fellow-minded students and professionals in the same field and gain visibility within the food community.

students-with-laptops

 

applications and nominations


If you know someone who would flourish as a member of the board, we'd love to hear about them. 

You can either submit your own application or nominate someone else.

I would like to apply to join the FSTA Student Advisory board
Please email Rhianna Gamble at r.gamble@ifis.org with your name, email address, course name, and university name. If possible, please include a reference from a faculty member at your university, including their name and contact email address for verification. 

 

We will then send you some questions to answer, to gather further insights into your skills and qualities. We will use this information in the evaluation process, and we will contact you by email to let you know if your application was successful.

I would like to nominate a student for the FSTA Student Advisory Board
If you know someone who would flourish as a member of the board, we'd love to hear about them. 

Please email Rhianna Gamble at r.gamble@ifis.org with the student's name, email address, course name, university name, and why you are recommending them.

 

We will then follow up with the student directly to verify they would like to apply, and to ask them some questions to gain further insights into their skills and qualities.

 

We will use this information to evaluate the applications, and will contact both you and the nominated student to let you know if the application to join the board was successful.

 

WHAT NEXT?


Once your application has been evaluated, we will invite approved students to join the advisory board. We will include no more than 2 students from any one institution.

We currently have 8 members on the board, and this will continue to grow on an ongoing basis!

If you have any questions which we have not covered, please contact Rhianna Gamble at r.gamble@ifis.org